Evans World 2012 – Week 1

Ah, the joys of Fall.  The smells from grills on the patio.  The sounds of football parties wafting in the air.  The crunch of the leaves on the ground as I stomp and stomp and stomp around my backyard cursing the name of Marshall, the performance of the Nebraska and Green Bay defenses, and overall questioning the role of divinity in the quantity of happiness in my FF life.

God, I hate losing.  I refuse to come in last place this year.

It was a hard enough weekend with the Husker and Green Bay losses, but to lose to Marshall when I have such a good team and all the other teams doing so much better than me … well … I’m just going to have to mock you all until I feel better about things.  So, here we go.  Welcome back to my thoughts for our FF year!

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• I’ll tell you this much, if this week is going to be an average FF week this season, it’s going to be a very fun year.  Can you recall ever seeing so many players posting 10+ points?  I love high scoring FF weeks!  It makes it all that more fun.  I hope this trend keeps up.  Of course, the only close matchup was between Ritchie and Mike, and the rest were blowouts.  Even still, I love triple-digit FF weeks.  Now, if I could just get one for myself.   
• Gary is off to his best start ever.  And when I say ever, I mean EVER.  Going back to 2006, Gary has not once won in Week 1.  This week he not only won, he destroyed Jason.  Good luck to you this season, Gary.  You’re off to a great start.  Lord knows you’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time.
• Ritchie, it’s not wise to take digs at the Commish’s team name.  Retribution can be a bitch.  Of course, I’ll need another week or two to prove my team can walk the walk.  Let me destroy Tony P. this week and I’ll get back to you on that.
• So Chicago is off to a strong start.  Think it will continue?  Sadly, I think it will.  I do expect Culter’s numbers to go down, but as I said in my predictions Marshall should continue to light it up.  Forte is strong too.  Maybe I’ll have to start Alshon Jeffrey over Jordy Nelson now.  Ugh.
• Should you be afraid of Berk’s bench?  Yes.  Last year we had the same situation and since nobody ever traded, Tony P. rode his bench to the playoffs.  Will it happen for Berk this season?  I’ve got a bad feeling it will.  I don’t expect the trade requests to come pouring in just yet, but after next week I expect to see some changes in Berk’s roster as we start begging him for trades.
• Not sure if you’ve read them, but Yahoo!’s recaps are ruining a lot of my fun.  They’ve pointed out things quickly that took me hours to compile.  Read them if you like, but I hope you’ll like my verbal bashings here better.
• Anyone missing Kevin and Tom this week?  Yeah, me too.  So much to make fun of them for.  I’m sure Kevin would have lost to Gary even after putting up 120 points.
• Call me crazy, but I think Marshall is going to be able to put up close to 100 points a week all season with his lineup.  Consider yourselves warned.
• Of all the people in this league, I didn’t expect Nathan to be the one to jump so quickly onto the Kevin Ogletree bandwagon.  It was a one-time deal, dude.  Austin and Witten will be the primary targets from now on.  Sorry.
• I think Berk picking up Morris only adds to his strong RB corps.  As much as I’d prefer to see Helu get more touches, if Morris continues to play like he has so far this season I don’t see it happening.
• Green Bay will be back.  Don’t worry.  They’ll see the 49ers again in the playoffs.  Randy Moss can just bite me.  I swear the only team he consistently kicks ass is the Pack.
• Marshall/Nathan, are you craving a Kroll’s butterburger right now?  I am jonesing for one big time.

WEEKLY AWARDS

• MVP – I really want to give this award to Gary’s Autodrafting system for generating a team that kicked so much ass and should continue to do so.  Instead I’ll give it to Berk’s RB corps that is just freaky deep.  Like I said above, I expect to see some trade requests coming into Berk in the next few weeks.  Believe it or not, I’m actually very happy to see Adrian Peterson coming back so strong after his injury.  A torn ACL can kill the career of an NFL player, and I love to see success stories for rehab, especially for a player who plays so hard and is always a great FF contributor … even if he is a bloody Viking.
• Honorable Mention – As much as I’d love to give the award to Tony P. for David Akers and his record-tying kick (that was actually made less than 1 mile above sea level), I’ve got to give it to Mike for Matt Ryan.  I predicted it and I was right.  The Atlanta Falcons are going to be a huge FF team this year, especially for Mike for Ryan and Gary for Jones.  Roddy White still managed to put up 10 points for Jason, and Tony Gonzalez (Tony P.) continued to prove he’s the greatest TE ever.  We’ll see if it holds up for those two.  If only Michael Turner could have gotten even a few of those points for Ritchie.
• Best Owner Choice – CJ Spiller came on late last season and was a big hit again this past week for Tony G., so I applaud you for starting him.  Certainly should pay off for you now that Jackson is out for a while.  Instead, I give the award this week to Berk for showing a confidence in Kevin Smith that I’m sure a majority of FF owners did not.  He reaped the benefits for it.  Great call!
• Unfortunate Bench – This award is always challenging to give out since hindsight is just so much fun to play with.  I could give it to me for not starting RGIII when he had a big first week (and many more to come … he’ll hit the trading block this week).  I could give it to Tony P. for benching Pierre Garcon who would have paid off huge with RGIII (Tony, interested in a trade?).  I could give it to Tony G. for benching Reggie Wayne, but come on who didn’t bench Reggie Wayne?  So, I’ll give it to Ritchie for benching Steven Ridley, not so much because he did better than Michael Turner but more because had Ridley started, Ritchie would have won his matchup.  I think he’ll be taking a closer look at his matchups before choosing RB from now on.
• Lawrence Phillips Award – I don’t think anyone will disagree with this.  Replacement refs.  They’ve got to go, and I mean soon.  Don’t buy the rhetoric coming from the NFL offices.  The replacement refs SUCK.  They miss calls all over the field.  They call non-existing penalties.  They call non-existing time outs.  It’s only going to get worse, folks.  This could be the only recipient to win the award twice, except for Tony Romo last year who deserved it.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE NCAA …

• I don’t think I’ve ever been so ashamed of a Husker defense in my entire life.  Hell, it may be the first time I was really ashamed of any Husker defense.  The tackling was non-existent.  No adjustments made (unlike UCLA that made all the right adjustments).  I’m actually glad Bo didn’t give out blackshirts before the season.  I think we saw on Saturday why.  Now it’s up to them to earn them.  If we don’t get some turnovers in the next two games, it’s going to be a long, painful conference season for us.
• I understand why the Savannah State AD agreed for their team to play Oklahoma State and Florida State this year.  It’s almost a cool million dollars in their pocket that they normally wouldn’t have.  That covers the cost of their football program even before their real season starts.  I guess we’ll see what impact those two blowouts have on the rest of their season.  I for one hope they win out.  I credit those kids for playing hard against teams their administration knew they had NO hope of beating.
• Even still, did anyone even know there was an option in college football to keep the clock running in case of a high score?  Yeah, I didn’t either.
• If I hear “old man” references one more time, I’m going to puke.
• Sending out thoughts and prayers via blog to Tulane’s Devon Walker.  You played hard, and we all wish you a speedy recovery.
• Seriously, Wisconsin?  Arkansas?  Iowa?

LOOKING AHEAD

• Thursday night game!  Bears-Packers!  What more could you ask for!?!
• Redemption week for those of us who are 0-1.  No one likes to go 0-2.  Unfortunately for Jason or Ritchie that will happen to one of you.  I prefer a league where the teams are closer to .500 when the playoff race begins.  Way more entertaining.  That said, you’re going down, Tony P.
• Be sure to select a team in the League Pickem.  I love that new feature.  Just more bragging rights, but only if you vote each week, so vote already!
• I don’t expect Gary to get as many points this week as he did last week, but he’ll keep a top spot in the league for sure.  I see his matchup with Tony G. to be a high-scoring affair.
• Nathan will start Ogletree against Seattle, but he wouldn’t need the help to humble Berk.

Have a great week, everyone!  See you again in a week when I’m 1-1.